Romance Author Panel & more writerly things

 Hello to all.

It's been a long time since I've blogged. Because I hadn't been writing, I didn't feel like I had anything to say. 

But now I do.

First of all, I'll be on the Paranormal / Fantasy Romance panel at the Romance Author Panel on 3 August at Ngutungka West Lakes.

As you can see there are more sessions for the day.

While the event is free, you do have to book.

Paranormal / Fantasy Romance 

Historical Romance

Contemporary Romance

Rural Romance

Secondly, I'm heading to the Romance Writers of Australia conference in August. It's in my home town. It's been a long time since I've been to conference and looking forward to catching up with writerly friends and to meet new authors.  It's also a way to kickstart my writing again. 

Tickets are still selling. 

If you're a reader, there's the book signing with many romance authors, writing all sorts of sub-genres. 

I have been volunteering for the Romance Writers of Australia as one of the Hearts Talk Design Editors. It's been interesting as the format is on an online platform which is for mobiles (Mobimag). The magazine is full of writerly information and is for RWAus members only. 

I have been writing articles and conducting interviews, which has been inspiring. 

I've still been coordinating the DarkSide DownUnder. It's had a little bit of a change on the blog with the DarkSider News now being in broken up into type: Events; New Releases & Sales; General news; Pre-Orders & Covers. It's to avoid the posts being too long. 

We also have Magic Thursday - topic by one of our members, and DarkLight On - usually an author interview of one of our members.

Come and have a look! 

How do I do this with chronic conditions? 

What I do is not 9-5. I'm able to mix and match my days. I do things in bite sized pieces. I'm not at the computer all day. I just can't. I used to push myself many years ago but it's not possible anymore. I need to move.

One thing that has suffered is my pre-made covers as HelzKat Designs. I have been working on some custom work this year but the PM covers have pretty much stalled. 

Yes, it's to do with the above but I've also been - gasp - writing again!!

I'm working on a dragon short story collection. Yes, the same collection I had talked about pre-covid. Who would have thought a few years later fantasy romance aka romantasy would be the 'it' thing in the reading world.

It has been uplifting to know that there is an audience out there for my work. I'm not chasing the trend, but just working on stories I would have written anyway. Some are fantasy, some fantasy romance, all with dragons. I mean, who doesn't love dragons!

So watch this space! 

Yia!!
~Eleni

2022 in Review and Happy 2023!

 

Wishing you all a most fantabulous magical year in 2023!

2022 in Review

As much as I wanted to be more active in writing in 2022, that didn't happen. I started a few stories but did not finish them. All except one - Believe in Magic. 

This story is now part of a limited available anthology, A Special Gift. 

A Special Gift anthology has six heart-warming holiday romances that feature a gift of love, and a guaranteed happy ending.

If you enjoy reading about lovers reunited and relationships helped along by a touch of seasonal magic, this one's for you!

It's available in ebook and paperback.

Get a copy

It's so good to have a short story out there again. 

What else has been happening? 

Not much since my last post. I continue to do some work on the DarkSide DownUnder, enjoying
sharing the stories from our lovely DarkSiders. 

I also share releases for the SARA group on the Facebook page. 

I'm still doing pre-covers as HelzKat Designs - around one a week. My Facebook group gets previews and a discount. I decided to only do custom covers for those I know personally and those on my Facebook group. I do this mostly to keep creativity going as I fight my brain fog. The projects are not as long as writing a story so it gives me a sense of completion. 

Oh and I finally got covid in October. Having a number of health conditions, I was able to get anti-virals. I was in isolation for about 8 days and thankfully didn't pass it on to the rest of the family. 

Health wise, 2022 has been a struggle as my fibromyalgia is worse and so is the brain fog. It's affected my reading. I've achieved 55 books at time of writing this post (29 December - I've been trying to schedule more posts on social media). In 2021 I had read 124 books and 137 in 2020. So it's half my regular reading. Sigh. Though as others have pointed out, that's still a great number of stories read. So silver linings. 

I have been viewing podcasts of independent news. I try not to be political with my author persona but that could change. I am a person who wants the best for others and hate seeing injustices. The biggest I see is that our freedoms are being eroded slowly and our neo-liberal system is not working. Perhaps my response can be in fiction. 

We lost our beautiful dog Elektra due to a serious hip problem. The vet has never seen such an eroded hip on a dog so young (4.5 years). The other hip was on it's way of being the same. The kindest thing we could do for her was to let her go. It was so hard to say goodbye and we felt cheated that we didn't get to spend more time with her. 

As fate would have it, a few weeks later we had a new joy in our lives with Kalypso. She's spunky and loveable and just what we needed so we didn't wallow in our grief. She's not one for photos. I have to take about 10 photos to get a decent one of her because she's not fond of having her photo taken. 

Again, may you have a most fantabulous magical year in 2023!

Hiatus with more signs of a hiatus...

Artist: Elena Schweitzer 

Depositphotos  

Yes, it's been a long time since I've blogged. I suppose I haven't much to say as my writing has been as a standstill as the brain fog of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome continues in my life. While I've been able to design some covers as HelzKat Designs (at a low output), I haven't been able to focus to work on fiction. 

I have managed to work on posts for the DarkSide DownUnder blog because it's other people's good news and I'm not 'creating' it as such. That lifts me up and I've allowed myself just to enjoy other people's successes without trying to force myself to write when I'm not ready. 

When I do design the pre-made covers, l come up with a little snippet of a story.  Perhaps the first step back is noting these snippets down.

I tend to be on Facebook/Instagram for design and the DarkSiders rather than as my writing self. I'm trying to streamline my time there and am scheduling posts so I don't get drained, as it can be information overload for me on social media. And if anyone who follows my reading blog will have noticed, I haven't kept that updated either. One reason is that reading has also been affected.

So basically I'm taking each day as it comes but am hopeful for the future. Hope is important.  

That's my status. I hope you're all safe and well. 

Yia!

 

DarkSide DownUnder's Spooktacular Halloween Giveaway

 

I'm part of the Spooktacular Halloween giveaway over at the DarkSide DownUnder blog. For your chance to win, just visit the blog, follow the link to the form and enter for your chance to win an ebook bundle.

The bundle includes:

The Heart of a Shadow (Book 1, Merged Worlds) by Samantha Marshall

Spell Struck (Book 1, Merry Magic) by Shelley Russell Nolan

Phantasia (Book 2, Phi Athanatoi) by Efthalia

Edge of Eon (Book 1, Eon Warriors) by Anna Hackett

Witch Bound (Prequel, Pack Bound) by Leisl Leighton

Enchanted Dreams (speculative fiction short story collection) by Eleni Konstantine

Good luck!

~Eleni~

From the cave

It's been a long time between posts. 

2020 has been a hell of a year for the world. To be honest I haven't felt like I've had much to say especially since my writing went into a hiatus again. Oh, there's been ruminating on ideas but there's been only a couple of short story first drafts written. 

I pop occasionally on social media but I'm only there for quick visits. 

I even stopped the DarkSide DownUnder for a bit too. Sometimes you just need a break. 

I even took a short break from reading. TV was my entertainment avenue. As was a lot of people's during lockdown. 

I'm going through a flare up of the chronic conditions - you know the drill - energy for home and family first followed by everything else. 

But I'm back to reading. 

Currently reading: 
Chocolate and Old Lace (Rosie Hart Mystery #1) by Kaz Delaney (Pssttt... HelzKat Designs designed the cover this) - cozy mystery

Last read: 

Gunmetal Magic (Kate Daniels #5.5) by Ilona Andrews - urban fantasy with romantic elements

Next: 

Marry in Haste (Marry of Convenience #1) by Anne Gracie -  historical romance

I'm also back organising the DSDU. 

I even wrote a blog post about writing flash fiction this week. 

I'm enjoying on catching up with all the fantastic news from the DarkSiders. It really is great seeing all the names out there and adding to my TBR pile. 

~Yia!~